Pashinian attended a Sunday mass in Garni, a large village 27 kilometers east of Yerevan, led by a renegade priest as part of his continuing efforts to depose the supreme head of the Armenian Apostolic Church. His political allies and other supporters were also in attendance.
A journalist with a pro-government news website, civic.am, interviewed some of those people in the courtyard of the local church. He wondered, in particular, what they think would force Garegin to bow to government pressure and resign.
“They should hit him on the head with a stone and kill him,” replied Edvard Stepanian, a middle-aged Garni resident working for the village administration.
Critics of the Armenian government seized upon the statement to demand criminal proceedings against Stepanian. Law-enforcement authorities seemed in no rush to do that.
The Office of the Prosecutor-General told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that it has launched a preliminary inquiry into the death call. It was thus not yet clear whether prosecutors will instruct another law-enforcement agency, the Investigative Committee, to open a criminal case and prosecute the Pashinian loyalist.
“The most terrifying thing about this incident is that hate speech and calls for violence have become normal for people” said Nina Karapetiants, a human rights activist. “People can call for violence in the courtyard of a church and still regard themselves as Christians, and it’s the authorities that are primarily to blame for this.”
Another activist, Vartan Harutiunian, likewise saw the open call for Garegin’s assassination as a consequence of Pashinian’s anti-church rhetoric.
“As a result of actions planned by the prime minister, the authorities led by the prime minister have created an atmosphere of intolerance and mutual hatred in the country,” said the Soviet-era dissident.
The day before the Garni liturgy, Pashinian encouraged his supporters attending other church services to loudly protest against priests who utter Garegin’s name in line with a centuries-old ecclesiastical rule. Critics accused him of inciting violent clashes inside churches.
The authorities have had no qualms about prosecuting Pashinian’s detractors accused of insulting the premier or other senior officials or threatening them with violence. Rafael Sarkisian, a 72-year-old man, was charged with making a death threat against Pashinian this summer the day after angrily declaring that he is looking for a way to “catch Nikol and tear off his neck.” He is due to go on trial soon.
A 71-year-old refugee from Nagorno-Karabakh, Albert Arstamian, was briefly detained in August 2024 for hurling an apple towards Pashinian in protest. He was charged with hooliganism but subsequently acquitted by a Yerevan court.
And as recently as last month, two pro-opposition podcasters, Naren Samsonian and Vazgen Saghatelian, were arrested on charges of making offensive and menacing statements about parliament speaker Alen Simonian. They remain under arrest. By contrast, Simonian avoided prosecution for spitting at a Canadian-Armenian activist who branded him a “traitor” at a popular dining area of Yerevan in April 2023.